Well I took a few days to write this blog since my last one, and as you will see it was for a good reason. Yesterday was a beautiful day. I was at work and having trouble concentrating because it was just too nice. And I was a bit ahead on my week's work as well, so I decided to take off a few minutes early and enjoy the day.
So there I am on the beltway driving way too fast to keep up with traffic during that stretch of the beltway at that time when lo and behold I see some cardboard in the road ahead of me. Now as this is dead center of my lane I decide to drive over top of it and avoid swerving into anyone else's lane. It looks short enough and besides it IS cardboard.
WRONG. It was a cinder block. Some F-er let it roll off the back of his car going on the beltway because he couldn't be bothered to secure the crap in his truck.
Well I jump at the sound of smashing under my car and roll to the curb only to see two other cars pull over with me. I originally though they were just concerned pedestrians ( a rare thing in DC) but no. That cinder block took out not 1 not 2 but 3 cars. FAIL. And just for the record no concerned pedestrians came to our rescue (FAIL DC. FAIL.) So we review the situation as follows:
Car 1, Van. Hit the block first I believe and the block tore out his oil pan, dumping all of his engine's oil and rendering his car undrivable.
Car 2: Mine. Original prognosis, it tore out a metal strip from my plastic rock guard under my car. VERY minimal damage. Or so I THOUGHT.
Car 3: The debris coming out from under my car blew out this guy's brand new tire.
So we call the cops they show up but seeing as the dude with the cinder block got away no report could be filed so it all comes down to us. So now I call the insurance company and they agree to fix it, but who is stuck paying the deductible because some most likely un-insured cinder block toting motorist ran off? Me.
So I drive home thinking my car has nothing more than a little banging up, but as I drive it sounds VERY bad. Call the Geico, get it towed, repair quote came in today.
3 Grand.
Cinder block rolled under the car and punched one of the engine mounts (for those who don't know your engine is mounted to your frame by about 6-8 mounting supports) so the engine mount is nearly torn away and the undercarriage is horribly bent. On top of that it mangled my exhaust so I need a new exhaust. And a few dings here and there.
Extreme Fail. $590 out of pocket because I have to pay the "aging cost" of the exhaust system.
So I could be mad, but here is the way I see it. I could wish it went differently, but if you think about it, had I tried to avoid it and missed I could have ripped out the side of my car and gotten in a serious high speed accident. As it went the three cars ended up steadily crushing the block into powder and no one got hurt, and everything can be Fixed. And had the wrong person hit that block first or at the wrong angle going 80 (yes we were all going about 80) people probably would have gotten very hurt so on the whole, I like to think I sacrificed my car for the greater good.
Fail, but an acceptable fail.
Now this didn't cross my desk as a patent, but it is totally worth mentioning.
The "Wine Rack"
http://www.amazon.com/The-WineRack-200-008-Wine-Medium/dp/B001FYZZI2/ref=sr_1_19?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1268312129&sr=8-19
Friday, March 19, 2010
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Blog 26: 3/16/10 : Blogedy blogedy
Not a huge amount to report. Hmm lets see. Well as I had said before I tried out for a musical and did not make callbacks, but then one of my friends on the inside convinced the people in charge to bring me back in for second auditions (apparently they were not satisfied with the callbacks and had a second set of auditions for the part I was interested in) so I got to go back and try out again and felt very pleased with my performance. Sadly I still did not make the part. But I was okay with that as if someone auditioned better than me when I felt like I did my best, I would be okay with that. HOWEVER. It now appears that while I was not cast, neither was ANYONE ELSE, and they are now having 3rd auditions for the part. Now not to tweak my own ego, but I thought I did pretty well that last time, so I am a bit confused as to what they are looking for. But I shall be interested to see how it all plays out, and no I shall not attend 3rd auditions, I'm already tuckered out from the first two, but I will be interested to see who they end up casting.
Other than that, just been hitting the gym and writing. Joe and I are up to page 8 on the new script so that is pretty satisfying. We were having some trouble with an inappropriate joke and the ultimate punchline it builds to. We may have it pinned but we shall read through it to make sure it drives the laugh home.
I am very much looking forward to week after next when the girl and I will be heading to Florida for a little R and R. I am very much looking forward to that. I am also looking forward to working on the house with the upcoming warm weather, but we keep having activities popping up that take us away from the house. ie went to Richmond to visit the bro in law at his new place (which is pretty sweet I must say, and they have the best dog too). But sooner or later I'll get a weekend to work on the house. Installed a ceiling chandelier yesterday (pain in my ass). Didn't electrocute myself though Meg tried to kill me by flipping on the electric lights while I was elbow deep in wiring. Fail Meg, Fail. But that kind of sums it up for now. Have to get back to work, huzznot.
Out.
7454801
Lazy Man's Toilet
http://www.google.com/patents?id=cZ6wAAAAEBAJ&printsec=abstract&zoom=4&source=gbs_overview_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=&f=false
Other than that, just been hitting the gym and writing. Joe and I are up to page 8 on the new script so that is pretty satisfying. We were having some trouble with an inappropriate joke and the ultimate punchline it builds to. We may have it pinned but we shall read through it to make sure it drives the laugh home.
I am very much looking forward to week after next when the girl and I will be heading to Florida for a little R and R. I am very much looking forward to that. I am also looking forward to working on the house with the upcoming warm weather, but we keep having activities popping up that take us away from the house. ie went to Richmond to visit the bro in law at his new place (which is pretty sweet I must say, and they have the best dog too). But sooner or later I'll get a weekend to work on the house. Installed a ceiling chandelier yesterday (pain in my ass). Didn't electrocute myself though Meg tried to kill me by flipping on the electric lights while I was elbow deep in wiring. Fail Meg, Fail. But that kind of sums it up for now. Have to get back to work, huzznot.
Out.
7454801
Lazy Man's Toilet
http://www.google.com/patents?id=cZ6wAAAAEBAJ&printsec=abstract&zoom=4&source=gbs_overview_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=&f=false
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Blog 26: 3/9/10 : Fail
Well yesterday was a big fail for everyone it would seem. I, sadly, did not make callback on my audition, but I did get some good feedback as to why which I shall take to heart for my next audition. Note to self, do not drop trow mid-audition. This does not make things go so well. But aside from that sporting an audition vocal that exemplifies range over working within the style of the Musical you are auditioning for is key. I think I forgot to show what I could do, and not how I would be good for this specific play. This is an important lesson, and I intend to pull a variety of musical pieces and practice them up for next time.
But as I said, yesterday was a fail for EVERYONE. I shall rank them as follows:
Third place goes to me: Failing to get called back for an audition. While this was unwanted and saddening, it has some positive sides such as I will not be making the massive commute to practice and I will still get to work on some pretty banging special effects for the play itself.
Second place goes to my Work Office mate who finally took her LSAT's. Now keep in mind she A) had to have her test postponed because of the snow, which threw off her mojo, and in addition had to skip her trip to New Orleans and a Marathon she was to run there to take the damned thing on the reschedule date because they were very abrupt about when everyone could take it, only to get a score she was very dissatisfied with so now she must take it again at a center 200 miles away because they are all full up for the summer. So that was her day on the down low.
And first place goes to my friend Brett who had 1000 dollars stolen out of his ATM account by either A) a rouge agent at our accounting office or B) someone from Turbo Tax who created a fake ATM card and hacked his account taking out the max withdraw two days running.
So all in all it was a pretty big fail day for everyone, but we went out to lunch with a sympathetic work friend and got Peruvian chicken which was the first win of the day.
Additionally for my day I used the time would have been at callbacks working on my script with Joe, and we got 4 pages of our new script written on paper, and almost the whole movie outlined. So it is fun to see that thing coming together.
Alright, back to the grind.
4407024 : Ultimate Toilet Seat
I really can't tell what this is teaching kids to do...
http://www.google.com/patents?id=uIAuAAAAEBAJ&printsec=abstract&zoom=4&source=gbs_overview_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=&f=false
But as I said, yesterday was a fail for EVERYONE. I shall rank them as follows:
Third place goes to me: Failing to get called back for an audition. While this was unwanted and saddening, it has some positive sides such as I will not be making the massive commute to practice and I will still get to work on some pretty banging special effects for the play itself.
Second place goes to my Work Office mate who finally took her LSAT's. Now keep in mind she A) had to have her test postponed because of the snow, which threw off her mojo, and in addition had to skip her trip to New Orleans and a Marathon she was to run there to take the damned thing on the reschedule date because they were very abrupt about when everyone could take it, only to get a score she was very dissatisfied with so now she must take it again at a center 200 miles away because they are all full up for the summer. So that was her day on the down low.
And first place goes to my friend Brett who had 1000 dollars stolen out of his ATM account by either A) a rouge agent at our accounting office or B) someone from Turbo Tax who created a fake ATM card and hacked his account taking out the max withdraw two days running.
So all in all it was a pretty big fail day for everyone, but we went out to lunch with a sympathetic work friend and got Peruvian chicken which was the first win of the day.
Additionally for my day I used the time would have been at callbacks working on my script with Joe, and we got 4 pages of our new script written on paper, and almost the whole movie outlined. So it is fun to see that thing coming together.
Alright, back to the grind.
4407024 : Ultimate Toilet Seat
I really can't tell what this is teaching kids to do...
http://www.google.com/patents?id=uIAuAAAAEBAJ&printsec=abstract&zoom=4&source=gbs_overview_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=&f=false
Monday, March 8, 2010
Blog 26: 3/8/10 : Auditions
Well I tried out for a play this weekend. They are supposed to be doing callbacks today but I haven't heard anything so I'm thinking the worst. That's right. Sinkhole. Whole theater must have slipped into the ground. Crazy sink holes. Well I don't think the audition went as well as I would have liked by a long shot. I just get so nervous, didn't used to, but then again, I'm out of practice. But it does make me feel motivated to try again though. I would like to get back into extra curricular activities to keep myself amused. But still the day is not out, perhaps I will still get a call but the pessimistic conservative side of me is not keeping its hopes up.
Other than that, I've been keeping reasonably busy. Doin script writings on Monday with friend Joe so that has been helping the creative muscles. Started working on the kitchen again yesterday. Spent most of Sunday on a ladder smoothing and sanding the ceiling and will start painting this week and working on some shelving. The wife is dead set on getting new counter tops but I remain hesitant, but we shall see how it all comes together.
Lets see what else. Work is going slow, but reasonably steady. Still not feeling horribly motivated at work, but I'm glad its there to pay the bills while I conduct my own research. Mostly these past two weeks have gone by in a pseudo blur of work and sleep. Kind of depressing really. Went to the doctor and got a sort of "answer all my questions" checkup. Nothing fancy but I like using sick leave cause it pays me to not work. :-D Hmm, that smiley face looks a lot like a horribly misshapen penis. Well on that note back to work, but hopefully I will have more to say tomorrow.
3316993
Best scooter EVER! I want this!
http://www.google.com/patents?id=zX9rAAAAEBAJ&printsec=abstract&zoom=4&source=gbs_overview_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=&f=false
Blog Update: Audition Fail. So sad, but we live and we learn, so better preparations for next time.
Other than that, I've been keeping reasonably busy. Doin script writings on Monday with friend Joe so that has been helping the creative muscles. Started working on the kitchen again yesterday. Spent most of Sunday on a ladder smoothing and sanding the ceiling and will start painting this week and working on some shelving. The wife is dead set on getting new counter tops but I remain hesitant, but we shall see how it all comes together.
Lets see what else. Work is going slow, but reasonably steady. Still not feeling horribly motivated at work, but I'm glad its there to pay the bills while I conduct my own research. Mostly these past two weeks have gone by in a pseudo blur of work and sleep. Kind of depressing really. Went to the doctor and got a sort of "answer all my questions" checkup. Nothing fancy but I like using sick leave cause it pays me to not work. :-D Hmm, that smiley face looks a lot like a horribly misshapen penis. Well on that note back to work, but hopefully I will have more to say tomorrow.
3316993
Best scooter EVER! I want this!
http://www.google.com/patents?id=zX9rAAAAEBAJ&printsec=abstract&zoom=4&source=gbs_overview_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=&f=false
Blog Update: Audition Fail. So sad, but we live and we learn, so better preparations for next time.
Monday, March 1, 2010
Blog 25 : 3/1/2010 - Retrospectionalysis
You know when I was younger I would determine whether or not it was going to be a good day by weather or not I could throw a used paper towel into the trash from a distance. The more elaborate the throw, the better the day it was going to be. Behind the back without looking was going to be a GREAT day. I wish life was that simple now. But why can't it be? Not sure, not sure what changed.
I had a nice long talk with the wife yesterday about getting back on track to getting a job in a field I want. I am very glad to have her cause she kicks my butt and reminds me what I need to be doing, and she is very right, I have let myself slip. It is hard because I am the kind of person who needs a plan, to see the steps to get to a goal, but I feel incapable of making a plan for this. I am not entirely sure what I want, and not knowing that makes it feel impossible to plan. It has been recommended that I see a career counselor. I am not sure if one exists that will tell me what I need to know but I hope they do. Sort of like a career therapist ;)
The funniest part of last week, and I just to this topic otherwise I will forget to mention it, I was wandering around my floor and came across a storage closet that was a little bit open. Thinking I wanted to see if they had a file binder I look inside, and there, right in the back on the bottom shelf, is the official Patent Office Suggestion Box. So there, tenth floor storage closet is where all suggestions are to be submitted. I promptly submitted a suggestion that they should relocate the box to a more obvious location.
Saw the movie "Book of Eli" yesterday. It's good to know that in post apocalyptic America that the Sun Glasses Hut will still be doing a thriving trade. This movie started off very well, bit of mystery, bit of Mad Max style, and ended up being Sixth Sense on Stupid. Basically you have a post apocalyptic world where Denzel is walking along with some magic book that will put everything right. Now I will begin spoiling this movie for you. The Book is the Bible. And this movie then becomes Preachy as HELL. And like I said, it is post apocalyptic where everyone is scrounging for food and water and the smallest little things.... but everyone who is a main character is apparently outfitted by Abercrombie, wears Oakleys, and there is no shortage of hair product. So much of this movie had to have been a "Good Idea at the Time" because it doesn't sink up. There is almost no motivation for half the people and things that occur, and this culminates, and here I find myself truly annoyed, in it being revealed right at the end that Denzel is BLIND. That's right, he goes through the whole F-ing movie basically juggling knives and reading the F-ing Chart at the eye doctors and then suddenly it turns out he was blind the whole time. Big F-ing NO. You can't Sixth Sense that crap. And yea, they try to make it look like that was how it was the whole movie by him commenting on smell and sound all the time, but the thing is almost everything he does in the movie STILL REQUIRED HIM TO SEE. Dumb. So needless to say the movie started out solid, ended up getting preachy, then just idiotic with fake blindness and a barrage of other fake diseases, and ends up having an ending scene that took 45 minutes. That's right, the big chase scene most movies end with, well this one is 45 minutes of WALKING. I must say I learned one thing while watching this movie. ALWAYS sit on the end of a row so you can get the crap out of there when shit hits the fan, and when I say shit I'm not being metaphorical.
Sorry, had to get that one off my chest, I hate it when I spend money on crap. It has gotten closer and closer to the point where I have seriously considered selling my TV. I watch so much television, but none of it is good. I weep.
Other than that, not too much else is new. Had Meg's birthday party this weekend which was good times. Many Friends came, good food, too much drink. Bro came up with his new GF so that was fun to meet her and see how they were getting on. Good times all round, made me smile.
I had a nice long talk with the wife yesterday about getting back on track to getting a job in a field I want. I am very glad to have her cause she kicks my butt and reminds me what I need to be doing, and she is very right, I have let myself slip. It is hard because I am the kind of person who needs a plan, to see the steps to get to a goal, but I feel incapable of making a plan for this. I am not entirely sure what I want, and not knowing that makes it feel impossible to plan. It has been recommended that I see a career counselor. I am not sure if one exists that will tell me what I need to know but I hope they do. Sort of like a career therapist ;)
The funniest part of last week, and I just to this topic otherwise I will forget to mention it, I was wandering around my floor and came across a storage closet that was a little bit open. Thinking I wanted to see if they had a file binder I look inside, and there, right in the back on the bottom shelf, is the official Patent Office Suggestion Box. So there, tenth floor storage closet is where all suggestions are to be submitted. I promptly submitted a suggestion that they should relocate the box to a more obvious location.
Saw the movie "Book of Eli" yesterday. It's good to know that in post apocalyptic America that the Sun Glasses Hut will still be doing a thriving trade. This movie started off very well, bit of mystery, bit of Mad Max style, and ended up being Sixth Sense on Stupid. Basically you have a post apocalyptic world where Denzel is walking along with some magic book that will put everything right. Now I will begin spoiling this movie for you. The Book is the Bible. And this movie then becomes Preachy as HELL. And like I said, it is post apocalyptic where everyone is scrounging for food and water and the smallest little things.... but everyone who is a main character is apparently outfitted by Abercrombie, wears Oakleys, and there is no shortage of hair product. So much of this movie had to have been a "Good Idea at the Time" because it doesn't sink up. There is almost no motivation for half the people and things that occur, and this culminates, and here I find myself truly annoyed, in it being revealed right at the end that Denzel is BLIND. That's right, he goes through the whole F-ing movie basically juggling knives and reading the F-ing Chart at the eye doctors and then suddenly it turns out he was blind the whole time. Big F-ing NO. You can't Sixth Sense that crap. And yea, they try to make it look like that was how it was the whole movie by him commenting on smell and sound all the time, but the thing is almost everything he does in the movie STILL REQUIRED HIM TO SEE. Dumb. So needless to say the movie started out solid, ended up getting preachy, then just idiotic with fake blindness and a barrage of other fake diseases, and ends up having an ending scene that took 45 minutes. That's right, the big chase scene most movies end with, well this one is 45 minutes of WALKING. I must say I learned one thing while watching this movie. ALWAYS sit on the end of a row so you can get the crap out of there when shit hits the fan, and when I say shit I'm not being metaphorical.
Sorry, had to get that one off my chest, I hate it when I spend money on crap. It has gotten closer and closer to the point where I have seriously considered selling my TV. I watch so much television, but none of it is good. I weep.
Other than that, not too much else is new. Had Meg's birthday party this weekend which was good times. Many Friends came, good food, too much drink. Bro came up with his new GF so that was fun to meet her and see how they were getting on. Good times all round, made me smile.
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